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Engineering, Building, and Architecture

Not many museums collect houses. The National Museum of American History has four, as well as two outbuildings, 11 rooms, an elevator, many building components, and some architectural elements from the White House. Drafting manuals are supplemented by many prints of buildings and other architectural subjects. The breadth of the museum's collections adds some surprising objects to these holdings, such as fans, purses, handkerchiefs, T-shirts, and other objects bearing images of buildings.

The engineering artifacts document the history of civil and mechanical engineering in the United States. So far, the Museum has declined to collect dams, skyscrapers, and bridges, but these and other important engineering achievements are preserved through blueprints, drawings, models, photographs, sketches, paintings, technical reports, and field notes.

This analog instrument uses integration to find the average of the square roots of all the radial distances from the zero circle to the record line on a circular chart. It was particularly useful for calculations of rates of flow and total flow of liquids. The planimeter has a 4" black plastic arm with an adjusting screw and tracer lens; a 6" curved metal arm with a mounting screw and a slotted follower that is inserted in the chart board; and a white metal recording unit with white plastic measuring wheel and vernier and a metal registering dial. The recording unit is marked: LASICO (/) USA. Underneath the curved metal arm is a serial number: 97661.

A black plastic case is lined with black and red foam padding. A label inside the lid is marked: DESIGNED AND BUILT BY (/) MAXIMILIAN BERKTOLD, CALIFORNIA – USA. An extra tracing lens is inside the case. The bottom of the case is marked with the recycling symbol around the number 2 and above the letters HDPE. The instrument was received with instructions, 2011.0043.01.01.

Georg Lory (1897–1968) worked for several German instrument manufacturers, including R. Reiss, before he immigrated to the United States in 1925 and worked for the Eugene Dietzgen Company in its San Francisco office. In 1929 he established the Los Angeles Scientific Instrument Company in Los Angeles. He repaired and made equipment including surveying instruments, planimeters, and pantographs. In 1944 he applied for a patent on the square root planimeter, receiving it in 1949. According to the donor, who joined the company in 1950, this example was made in 1990 as model 2000-V. It sold for $865.00 and was intended for use with Foxboro Chart 898418. For an earlier example, see 2011.0043.02. Lasico closed in 2008, although Absolute Accuracy, a successor firm in the same location, continues to distribute models 10, 20, and 30.

This four-page pamphlet shows model 125 of the Lasico square root planimeter, which sold in the 1940s for $135.00. It had a tracer point, unlike the later model 2000-V (2011.0043.01 and 2011.0043.02), which had a tracer lens. The pamphlet explains how to read the instrument and apply its readings to rate of flow calculations.

This planimeter is designed to find the average of the square roots of all the radial distances from the zero circle to the record line on a circular chart that rests on a turntable underneath the instrument. The planimeter has a 4" green metal angled arm with an adjusting screw and tracer lens; a 6" curved metal arm with a mounting screw and a slotted follower that is inserted in the turntable; and a green metal recording unit with white plastic measuring wheel and vernier and a metal registering dial. The recording unit is marked: LASICO. Underneath the curved metal arm is a serial number: 66607.

The circular white paper chart is marked: Taylor (/) ROCHESTER, N.Y., U.S.A. (/) CHART OP2750 (/) METER ORIFICE (/) TAYLOR INSTRUMENT COMPANIES. The square root symbol is in front of the word CHART. The hours of the day are printed around the outside of the chart. The turntable is black plastic. It is fastened to a white plastic rectangular base. Underneath the base is marked: TURNTABLE 1 06. It is also marked: MADE IN USA (/) MRC R 20 FF.

According to the donor, who worked for the Los Angeles Scientific Instrument Company from 1950 until it closed in 2008, this example was made in 1955 as model 2000-V. It replaced model 125, which had a tracer point instead of a tracer lens. Model 2000-V sold for $550.00 in 1955. For a later example and company history, see 2011.0043.01. The turntable was model 1006 and sold for $225.00.

Taylor Instrument Companies copyrighted the OP2750 chart on June 13, 1933. The firm has a history of selling and making thermometers, barometers, and other instruments that dates back to 1851.

This metal prototype for an electronic polar planimeter has an adjustable 12" tracer arm with lens. The top of the arm is divided to millimeters and numbered from 10 to 24 centimeters. The bottom is marked with a serial number: 45254. The arm slides into a painted metal holder for an electronic measuring unit with a plug. The holder has a vernier for the scale on the tracer arm and is marked: LASICO. The plug attaches to a Series 40 processor with a digital screen for displaying the measurement and a knob for setting the instrument to OFF, A, ACCU, or B. An AC adapter by Calrad, a Taiwanese company, powers the processor.

An adjustable 10" pole arm fits into the holder at one end and a rectangular painted metal pole weight at the other end. The weight is marked: LASICO (/) U.S.A. The arm is divided to millimeters and numbered by tens from 30 to 60 millimeters. The adjusting part of the arm is marked: LASICO. An additional tracer arm with a point instead of a lens has serial number: 45275. A business card for the designer, who also donated the instrument, an extra lens, and two plastic washers for the lens are inside a black plastic case lined with foam.

Maximilian Berktold (b. 1929) immigrated from Kempten-Allgäu, West Germany, in 1950 and almost immediately began working for the Los Angeles Scientific Instrument Company. He oversaw design and production of the firm's planimeters, integrators, pantographs, and various optical instruments until Lasico closed in 2008. He developed this prototype around 1970 from the company's model L30 mechanical planimeter, but the final version was sold as model series 40 and 50. These devices cost several hundred dollars.

An 18-page booklet, "LASICO Instruction Manual [for] Digital Compensating Polar Planimeters," was received with the instrument. It contains the calibration settings for a model L50-E, serial number 65879. For company history, see 2011.0043.01.

Materials relating to bridge construction in California. Includes a set of drawings for the San Joaquin River Bridge, Mossdale, California (1924), a California Division of Highways Bridge Department Manual (1931), and booklets by the California Highway Commission containing contracts and specifications for the construction of bridges on state highways (1925-26)

Cite as

James Gallagher Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

This circular slide rule consists of a silver-colored metal dial, 8-1/2" wide, mounted on a silver-colored metal disc. Three oblong holes on the base disc permit the reading of trigonometric scales on a white celluloid and cardboard disc that is between the metal discs. The celluloid disc is marked: COPYRIGHTED (/) L. ROSS, SAN FRANCISCO (/) PATENTS PENDING.

On the front of the instrument, the top dial is divided along the outer edge into 400 equal parts. In each quadrant of the dial, the scale is marked from 100 to 1,000, with every tenth division marked. Inside of this scale, there is a spiral scale with 25 coils divided logarithmically from 0 to 1,000, making the rule equivalent to a linear slide rule about 50 feet long. These scales are marked in purple and are worn away in several places, including around much of the edge and underneath where the indicators rest.

Affixed to the center of the disc is a brown metal linear rule, 1-1/8" wide, marked with N, M (Sum), D (Difference), and Root scales. This rule is made of three pieces, but the center no longer slides. Also affixed to the center is a yellow celluloid hairline indicator, 3/4" wide, and a second yellow celluloid indicator, 1-1/2" wide. This indicator is marked on the left side by fours from 0 to 100, labeled Quadrants, and on the right side at varying intervals from 100 to 1,000, labeled Nos. It is attached to a metal handle lined with yellow-white celluloid. The handle is also attached to a pivot at the center back of the instrument. The handle is marked: THE ROSS (/) PRECISION COMPUTER (/) Computer Mfg. Co. (/) San Francisco. The handle has reminders for setting the device for multiplication, division, and proportion, and there is a thumbscrew for making adjustments.

The instrument also came with a loose, wedge-shaped piece of yellow celluloid with a hole at one end for attaching to the center of the computer. It is marked with the names of various trigonometric functions and various angles. The round part of the instrument fits into a black leather case with two snaps, stamped both inside and outside: x THE ROSS ÷ (/) PRECISION COMPUTER (/) COMPUTER MFG. CO. (/) SAN FRANCISCO U.S.A. (/) PAT. PEND. COPYRIGHTED. An instruction manual (1996.3077.02) and a letter and advertising literature (1966.3077.03) sent to the purchaser, Roy Kegerreis of New York, were received with this instrument. The letter is dated July 31, 1918, and the manual was copyrighted in 1919.

Louis Ross of San Francisco designed three circular slide rules in the 1910s: the Precision Computer, the Meridi-o-graph, and the Rapid Computer. Advertisements and reports of surviving instruments indicate that the Precision Computer varied in appearance and size.

The Computer Manufacturing Company sold the Precision Computer for $20.00. A clamp for mounting the rule above a desk sold separately for $2.50. The company claimed its customers included the Panama Canal Commission, DuPont Powder Works, and General Electric. The company's offices were originally located on 25 California Street in San Francisco; in 1921, the factory moved from 268 Market to 340 Sansome. The Sansome address is handwritten inside the instruction manual, suggesting Kegerreis learned about the computer in 1918 but did not purchase one until 1921.

Dr. Roy Kegerreis (1886–1968) obtained his BS in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University in 1907, his MS in Mathematics from Harvard, and his PhD in Physics from the University of Michigan in 1917. At the time he purchased this slide rule, he apparently was living in New York City. Kegerreis went on to get an MD in 1934, and he worked for many years as a radiologist. This slide rule was given to the Smithsonian by his daughter, in his memory.

From the 1650s people have devised special-purpose slide rules for tasks such as carpentry and tax collection. In 1961 Danforth (Danny) W. Hagler of the Georgia Iron Works Company in Augusta, Ga., designed this slide rule to replace the 100-page notebook of graphs carried by each GIW engineer. GIW also distributed the rule to customers to assist with ordering and operating pumps and pipelines. Pickett & Eckel, the California slide rule manufacturer, assisted with the design and produced the slide rules. For Pickett company history, see 1998.0119.02 and 2000.0203.01.

This ten-inch, two-sided white aluminum instrument has metal endpieces and a nylon cursor with white plastic edges. The front has logarithmic scales for calculating the kinetic energy and flow rate of a liquid or slurry moving through a pipeline. The top of the base is marked: HYDRAULIC SLIDE RULE (/) GEORGIA IRON WORKS CO. (/) EST. 1891 (/) AUGUSTA GEORGIA. The left end of the slide has a GIW logo. The right end of the slide has the triangular Pickett logo used between 1958 and 1962 and is marked: 338. The bottom of the base is marked: DESIGNED BY D. W. HAGLER.

The back has logarithmic scales for determining the head produced by a pump, impeller peripheral speed, brake horsepower, and specific speed. Standard C and D scales were added around 1969. The right end of the slide is marked: PICKETT (/) MODEL N 15-T (/) 337. The rule fits in an orange leather case with a belt loop. The front of the case is marked: HYDRAULIC SLIDE RULE (/) GIW (/) D. W. HAGLER (/) Pickett. The case fits inside a redwood box.

This particular rule was Hagler's personal example of the instrument in production. GIW was his family's business, and his brother, Tom, wrote an instruction manual for the rule (2009.0100.02). Hagler went on to work on computer software for production control. He sold his interest in GIW in 1986.

This model was filed to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to G. E. Dow, of San Francisco, California, November 4, 1879, no. 221220.

The model represents a form of valve gear for a direct-connected steam engine in which the main valve is partially operated by a system of cam-shaped levers actuated from the main piston rod and partially by a supplementary steam piston, the movement of which is controlled by valves connected to the same levers.

Reference:

This description comes from the 1939 Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States Museum Bulletin 173 by Frank A. Taylor.

This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to J. and F. M. Cottle, October 21, 1879, no. 220751.

This mill has a double-rimmed steel wind wheel made up of small wedge-shaped vanes, which are removable to permit regulation of the power of the mill. The wind wheel cannot be swung out of its position, but the shaft is carried in sliding bearings so that the gear on the shaft can be disengaged to let the wheel run free. It is equipped with a selective gear transmission. The model shows the mill attached to the bucket chain of a well.

Reference:

This description comes from the 1939 Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States Museum Bulletin 173 by Frank A. Taylor.

This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to George K. Gluyas and Washington R. Pitts, of San Francisco, California, October 1, 1872, no. 131779.

This model represents a simple arrangement of two rectangular chambers joined by rows of tubes and fitted with baffles so that steam admitted at one end would traverse the tubes in three directions before passing out. The inventor designed the condenser to be located in the wheel box of a paddle-wheel steamer where the water and spray from the wheel would cool the tubes and condense the steam.

Reference:

This description comes from the 1939 Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States Museum Bulletin 173 by Frank A. Taylor.